Open AccessFast refocusing lens based on ferroelectric liquid crystals
Author(s) -
Souptik Mukherjee,
Zhengnan Yuan,
Zhibo Sun,
Anran Li,
Chen-bing Kang,
HoiSing Kwok,
Abhishek Kumar Srivastava
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.417112
Subject(s) - optics , lens (geology) , liquid crystal , focal length , ferroelectricity , millisecond , polarization (electrochemistry) , materials science , accommodation , response time , microsecond , optoelectronics , computer science , physics , computer graphics (images) , chemistry , astronomy , dielectric
Optical devices like virtual reality (VR) headsets present challenges in terms of vergence-accommodation conflict that leads to visual fatigue for the user over time. Lenses available to meet these challenges include liquid crystal (LC) lenses, which possess a response time in the millisecond range. This response time is slow, while accessing multiple focal lengths. A ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) has a response time in the microsecond range. In this article, we disclose a switchable lens device having a combination of the fast FLC-based polarization rotation unit and a passive polarization-dependent LC lens. A cascaded combination of three such lens units allows access to eight different focal points quite rapidly and can be a convenient device for VR applications.